Show Me How to Read That Map!

Excerpt 1

Shift in Reference When Viewing the Past

What I propose is a shift in reference when viewing our history. Instead of looking at African American history as a failure in comparison to other groups that came to America. Ask yourself, what other group has endured such a legacy and not only survived but achieved in all aspects of American life in spite of all attempts to keep us from doing so?

A simple shift in the way you view your history can work as a miraculous positive force in providing you with immeasurable strength in the face of daily adversity. Our legacy is one of strength, struggle, achievement against all odds, and endurance. And since none of us miraculously appeared here on our own, paying homage to the Giants that came before us should be our daily battle cry. The history of their lives allows us to stand on their achievement of survival. This is the beginning of the type thinking you need to snap out of the “poor me” syndrome, many of us suffer from.

Every time I think of our ancestors being sold as slaves, stripped of their language and culture, working from sun up to sun down in cotton, sugar cane, rice fields and farms without pay or the promise of continued life, my struggle to teach myself and my children how to prosper in America pales to their plight. Yet they survived, endured and succeeded as best they could. They made it possible for each succeeding generation to provide a better life for their children. We are their children. We should all consider ourselves their children. We owe them something, we owe them our existence. The question is what are we willing to do with the gift. Consider this, they provided us with the opportunity to stand here today to be the great scientists, teachers, rap stars, movie stars, great athletes, and just plain everyday heroes to our children. This is what we should be celebrating. You cannot view African-American history positively unless you know about the struggle and achievements of those before us and revere in our achievement as a people.

When we fail to pass this spirit and knowledge on to our children, we cripple them mentally and emotionally, making them victims of our American experience instead of survivors and winners.

Excerpt 2

How to Develop a Preferred Future Vision

To take control of our lives requires courage. To envision a better future requires us to be responsible for our everyday actions. Change compels us to establish goals and to act in accordance with those goals on a daily basis. Think about the following statements and begin to develop your own preferred future vision.

• Goals and dreams are simply the mental exercise we undertake when we want to see ourselves living a better life.

• A vision is what we need to motivate ourselves to reach those goals, which are not yet realized, and we are afraid that we cannot achieve them.

• Faith is what we must have and maintain when the journey toward our vision is hazardous, filled with hard work, lengthy, with time consuming steps and no immediate tangible rewards.

• Remember...faith is an act of courage required when we decide that we will succeed against all odds, in spite of what other people say and do to discourage us.

• Your behavior and daily activities, whatever they are, tell you and th